It has become increasingly popular to place logos or other graphic or printed content on the front crown portions of caps and hats. The logos, designs or other printed content typically show affiliation with a team or organization. One type of cap for which a name, logo or other written indicia is often desired is a soft cap with a rounded crown and a stiff brim projecting in front. This will type of cap is typically referred to as a baseball cap. Members of baseball teams have long worn these types of caps as part of their team uniforms. When used as part of a uniform, it has long been common for the front crown portion of the camp to display a design, logo, word or letter that symbolizes the team.
In more recent years, this same type of cap has been increasingly worn by casual wearers who are not necessarily baseball team members, but who are merely wearing these types of hats as part of their casual attire. These types of caps also are worn causally by non-players with team logos or designs of their favorite team as an indication of their support or affection for that team. The identifying logo or design most typically is located on the front of the crown portion of a cap. Using logos or designs on baseball caps to show affiliation extends beyond baseball teams. Baseball type hats are also widely used today as instruments of commercial advertising and promotion, wherein company names or logos are on caps in a similar manner, and used to promote organizations or products.
Most commonly, display logos or designs are placed, at least, in the front, center portions of the cap crown. As the myriad of contemporary uses of baseball type caps expands, there has been increasing interest in placing larger designs, or multi-component designs or textual matter on the front crown portion of baseball caps. For this reason, there has been increasing interest in enlarging the portion of the cap's crown used for display of the logos, designs or displayable textual material.
Embroidery is most often recommended and often most preferred way of decorating crown portion of baseball type caps and applying logos designs or displayable textual material thereto. When sewing baseball and other types of caps on an embroidery machine, it is common to secure and control the position of a cap during the embroidery process with a specially designed fixture, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,675, assigned to the assignee of the present invention. While the fixture shown and described in this patent has been very successful, it is not without its disadvantages when attempting to sew about the lower portion of the crown portion of a baseball type cap, adjacent the brim. Due to the size and thickness of sewing heads on many embroidery machines, it becomes problematic with these types of fixtures to position a cap so the head of an embroidery machine can be put into an optimal position to sew the lower portion of the cap crown, particularly in the area adjacent to the cap's interface with the brim or bill of the cap. There therefore is a need in the prior art for gaining access to the lower portion of a cap crown with an embroidery machine.